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The coronavirus has shown the ability to transmit between people, cause serious illness and jump continents. These three conditions bring the world to the threshold of a pandemic. The word is scary, as Monday’s stock-market plunge reminded us, but most important is what to do about it. China might have blunted the virus with its draconian containment measures, but if containment fails, a host of problems will face every country, and few are ready. (2/24)

As several thousand people become newly infected each day with the novel coronavirus Covid-19, and some die of it, there are accelerated efforts to develop new coronavirus vaccines. The World Health Organization has activated its R&D Blueprint, new investments are in the pipeline, and multiple vaccine candidates are expected to advance to clinical trials. But as the world rushes to develop new vaccines against Covid-19, there is a real risk that pregnant women and their babies will not be among those who are able to benefit from them. (Carleigh Krubiner, Ruth R. Faden and Ruth A. Karron, 2/25)

Costa Mesa officials are right to be concerned with the public health risk from COVID-19, the coronavirus that is slowly spreading across the globe. But they are wrong to try to block the state and federal government from using a state-owned medical facility in their city to isolate and treat coronavirus patients. Their objections are based on nothing more than unfounded fears that have become as widespread as the coronavirus itself. At issue are 30 to 50 people with confirmed COVID-19 infections who are quarantined at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California, where American evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship were taken. (2/25)

Fresh outbreaks in Italy and Iran, and a galloping rate of new infections in South Korea and Japan, suggest that Covid-19 is skipping past our quarantine cordons quite as easily as it jumps the body’s defenses. “Those countries are canaries in the coalmine that the virus is quite active — a sign that containment is reaching the end of its applicability,” said Ian Mackay, an associate professor of virology at the University of Queensland. “There could be these sorts of spot fires burning everywhere with us not knowing.” These outbreaks may still be just the tip of the iceberg. (David Fickling, 2/24)

The coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan, China, last year is causing alarm across the world, with fear that this could become the next pandemic. Late last month, the World Health Organization declared the virus, named COVID-19, a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" and urged an immediate international response... Unfortunately, President Donald Trump has taken actions that many doctors and experts agree will leave the US less prepared to respond to COVID-19. He has eliminated the position of Global Health Czar and has repeatedly proposed cuts important to global health funding -- thankfully that have failed to pass in Congress. (Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar, 2/24)

As several thousand people become newly infected each day with the novel coronavirus Covid-19, and some die of it, there are accelerated efforts to develop new coronavirus vaccines. The World Health Organization has activated its R&D Blueprint, new investments are in the pipeline, and multiple vaccine candidates are expected to advance to clinical trials. But as the world rushes to develop new vaccines against Covid-19, there is a real risk that pregnant women and their babies will not be among those who are able to benefit from them. (Carleigh Krubiner, Ruth R. Faden and Ruth A. Karron, 2/25)

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s inept and dishonest response to the initial outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus is exacerbating an already dangerous situation. Now it is arguably threatening to spark a regional epidemic as well. Under Iran’s theocratic rule, where human life holds little value, the state’s lackadaisical response was completely predictable. On Monday, a member of Iran’s parliament claimed that the death toll from the virus in the region he represents has already reached 50 people, far surpassing the 12 deaths the country’s health ministry has confirmed. (Rezaian, 2/24)

The surge in confirmed cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus in Italy has thrown up a classic dilemma for the European Union: How to protect unity between 27 member states when domestic political pressures call for national, beggar-thy-neighbor responses. In the face of a possible pandemic, the deceptively simple cry for tough national border controls is growing louder. But it’s not a decision that should be taken rashly. (Lionel Laurent, 2/25)

There’s a lot we don’t know about Covid-19 — the coronavirus now spreading around the world, aided by air travel. Fighting Covid-19 has been complicated by a lack of transparent information from China about the exact origin of the disease, but there’s much that we do know, including the genome of this virus, which will quickly lead to an accurate diagnostic tool. (Jonathan Fielding, 2/24)

A truism of our times is that media hysteria quickly envelops every major story, with social media virality and cable-news imperatives combining to make any domestic controversy feel like Watergate, if not Fort Sumter, and any international incident feel like the assassination of Franz Ferdinand — until the next story rolls around and last week’s crisis is forgotten. So it’s been striking to watch media coverage of the coronavirus, which has now officially shaken free of its Chinese origins with outbreaks in Italy, South Korea and the Middle East, take a somewhat more muted tack these last few weeks. Of course there has been terrific reporting, much of it from my colleagues at this newspaper, on the surreal developments in the illness’s Wuhan epicenter. (Ross Douthat, 2/25)

The Chinese government’s thorough and invasive people-control policies to control the coronavirus outbreak enabled my startup’s Suzhou office to reopen last week but, as the virus spreads around the globe, I wonder how the United States and other countries will manage. Our company spent 10 days implementing procedures to pass the reopening protocols. We formed a virus protection committee. We bought 1,000 surgical masks, special disinfectant gloves, and a microwave to reheat homemade lunches, since gathering at restaurants is forbidden. We documented every employee’s Chinese New Year holiday itinerary, including modes of transportation, daily activities, the people they met, and the health status of everyone around them. (Heidi Wyle, 2/24)